Cheating Death
by TheAngelsHaveTheFandoms
Summary: A ghost Melinda meets is a little more than ordinary. No slash.
1. Chapter 1

**I claim no ownership over Ghost Whisperer, Merlin, or my neighbors' pterodactyls**

Encountering a ghost was nothing out of the ordinary for Melinda Gordon. In fact, not meeting a ghost was a strange experience for someone with her talents. This ghost, however, was different. She'd met many 'different' ghosts before, too. Sometimes ghosts would find her, sometimes ghosts were particularly powerful, and sometimes (or most of the time), ghosts seeked her help. But she'd never met a ghost with all three characteristics combined, and much more.

The power radiating off this one was close to unbearable to Melinda. She was grateful that he had many positive influences coming off of him. What made her wince when she approached the ghost was the anger. He had obviously been very mad for a long, long time.

"What do you need?" Melinda asked him. She didn't waste her time with introducing herself. She knew that he already knew who she was, based on the looks he was giving her from the park. She had to ask Delia to watch after the shop after she couldn't ignore him anymore. She crossed her arms over her chest.

"I've died a long time before I was destined to. I need your help in correcting that." He replied. He was incredibly young, but he spoke authoritatively to Melinda.

Melinda felt bad for him, honestly. Being dead was a terrible thing to have happen to you, she knew that first hand. But having the delusion in which death could be cheated, after death, was sad. "I'm sorry. I can only help you cross over. I can't raise you from the dead."

"No," he agreed. "Unfortunately, you aren't the prime candidate for what I have to ask of you. However, you are the only one who can help me."

Melinda was confused. "There have been many people with my gift. Why me?"

The young man gave her a hint of a smile. "None have had such a heart as you to be able to help me."

She still didn't understand. "Okay. So, what do you need me to do?"

His face turned solemn. "This part is up to me"

He continued speaking, or more precisely worded-chanting, after his last sentence. It was not, however, in English. He raised his hand towards Melinda. In her mind, she was panicking. A ghost had never done such a thing to her, and frankly, she was scared.

When he was done, his eyes flashed gold. Then, blackness.


	2. Chapter 2

Her senses came back to her slowly. First, it was her sense of smell. Everything around her smelled fresh. The moss and grass that was particularly close to her nose, by what she could tell, was completely different from her idea of what moss should smell like. The grass smell was close to freshly cut grass, but different.

Next was her hearing. The wind was rustling the trees that must have been right above her. Then she heard the footsteps. Or at least, she presumed they were footsteps. They were different than a human's, however. The frequency of the sound was a bit larger than her own when she walked.

Then there were voices. She didn't know what they were saying, but she knew for sure that a human was the only creature to make that certain noise. She thought she heard hints of metal in there, but it was faint. She decided that that could just be her ears playing tricks on her.

A hand grabbed her by the shoulder, flipping her over. Melinda felt the sunlight hit her face. When she first opened her eyes, she was immediately blinded. Many blinks later, the face of a young man became apparent to her. His blonde hair hung close to his eyes, distorting the image Melinda saw, but she was able to make out the confusion written on his face.

"Are you okay?" He asked her. Melinda detected a British accent. She noticed the chain-mail that he wore.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. I'm not quite sure how I got here, though." She pushed herself off the ground and stood up. "Why are you wearing that?"

He frowned at her. He opened his mouth, about to answer, but she answered herself first. "No! This is that role playing thing, right? What's it called...LARPing or something?"

He stared at her for a while, questioning the sanity that the woman may have or have not possessed. She did seem to wear strange clothes... "I haven't a clue what you're talking about."

"Oh right, you can't break character, can you? That's okay. Uh...Where, knight, may I find the nearest village?" Melinda bowed down a little. She didn't know what proper actions she was supposed to take, but she hoped that he wouldn't be too picky.

He gave a quick look back to someone that Melinda didn't notice before. She moved her head to the side so she could look around him. When she saw who was behind him, she gasped and backed away from the man. "No, please, not you," She said, not breaking eye contact with the other man.

The blonde one gave her another look. "What harm has he done to you?"

The one from the park gave her an even stranger look. It was as if he knew something more, but still didn't understand. "Nothing, he's done nothing." She cocked her head. "How are you alive?"

He gave her a sort of nervous laugh. The blonde one could only watch the unraveling conversation. "Well, you see, when a man and a woman love each other very much…"

Melinda rolled her eyes. "That's not what I mean. The last time I spoke with you, you were dead"

"And how, exactly, do you talk to a dead person?" The blonde one asked. Melinda realized her mistake.

"Did I say dead? I meant dying."

"Uh huh" The blonde one said, obviously distrusting her answer. "Look, we should have Gaius, Camelot's physician, check you out."

"I don't even know you"

"Alright, well, I'm Arthur, king of Camelot."

"And him?"

"Him?" Arthur asked, pointing back to the other man. "He's just my servant"

"I don't think anyone is 'just' a servant"

Arthur frowned at her again. She was a strange one. Nobody cared that much about servants. "Merlin" The servant answered in turn.

"Merlin, off your horse. She needs somewhere to sit"

"Oh, no, I'm fine. I'm more than capable of walking." Actually, she wasn't in those shoes. She just didn't want to de-horse the poor servant.

"Nonsense. Merlin, off" Merlin obeyed, much against Melinda's wishes. Not, however, without Merlin muttering the word 'dollophead'. She couldn't help but laugh.


	3. Chapter 3

The village was too large to be fake. Everything, down to the peasants, were genuine. She had trouble imagining that people would openly choose to be a peasant. And this wasn't a reenactment of sorts. Although frightened and unsure of what the young man did to her, she kept her mouth shut. She would have to have words with him later. Surely it wouldn't be too hard to track him down.

Once they made it to the front of the castle, Arthur helped her in dismounting. She was pleased to notice that while they thought she was insane, he still acted chivalrous. "Merlin," he said, guiding her over to the servant. "Take her to Gaius. I would take you myself, but I have matters to attend to." With that, he ascended into the castle, leaving the two by themselves.

Merlin gave her a slight bow, and then started walking. Melinda took her place and followed him. He took a quick glimpse over his shoulder, making sure that she followed.

Melinda stayed close, but always made sure that they weren't too close. Whatever he was, it freaked her out. With Arthur around, it gave her comfort. Now that he was gone, she wasn't sure what he would do next.

She didn't like being wary about someone who was obviously special, such as herself. She didn't want people to be scared of _her_. But she'd never seen anything like what he did.

Plus, she didn't like when ghosts tried to force her to do something. Much less send her back in time, which is what she guessed had happened to her.

He led her through a long series of hallways and stairs. Finally, they came upon a wooden door. Merlin opened it for her, and stood aside to let her pass. She tried to quickly survey her surroundings. The room was large, with many books, potions, and herbs lying about. In the middle of it, an old man stood. He turned to look upon his new arrivals.

Merlin walked around Melinda into the room. The man himself, Gaius, Melinda presumed, came over. He set his hand on her back and led her over to a cot. She sat down upon it. Instead of asking her what the problem was, however, he turned to Merlin. "We found her in the woods. She's a little...confused."

She realized that they were talking about her in such a manor that they presumed that she was crazy. She distastefully watched them.

"Any signs of sickness? Is this Morgana's doing, perhaps?" Gaius said to Merlin. Melinda had heard of Morgana. The notorious ruler of Britain, her reign being carried down by her children until the industrial revolution.

"No, listen," Merlin said before turning to look at her, then pulled Gaius away to talk in actual privacy. She couldn't hear them as Merlin leaned in the whisper something. "She knows something about me. When we found her, she looked at me, and she was scared. She knew me somehow."

Gaius looked at her again, which was useless. She simply stared at them with raised eyebrows. She desperately wished she could leave, but she still needed to question the boy.

Gaius turned to Merlin. "I don't think she's insane, Merlin. I think strong magic is in the works here"

Merlin suspected. "But whose?"

"Yours"


	4. Chapter 4

_Merlin suspected. "But whose?"_

"_Yours"_

"Gaius, that would mean one of two things. Either she's from a different dimension, or she's from the future"

"It's very well possible"

"Well, when you two boys are done talking about me, I can explain to the best of my abilities what's happened to me. Or, you can continue to pretend I'm some insane woman, who just has an affiliation with waking up in the woods. Your call."

Gaius gave Merlin a look. Women didn't usually stand up to men, and her doing so made her very different. Even from Gwen, who wasn't afraid to tell her opinion to Arthur.

Both boys reluctantly came to sit next to Melinda. "From what I can tell, I'm from the future. You spoke of Morgana? I've heard of her, from history."

Merlin examined her clothes. "So in the future, women will wear men's clothing?"

Melinda looked down upon her outfit. She would in no way consider herself to be wearing men's clothes. She wore heels, skinny jeans, and a loose, satin, pink shirt. She humored herself by imagining Jim in her clothes. He looked utterly ridiculous. "Uh, no. These are women's clothes."

"Not here they're not. We'll have to find you some proper clothes before you go out. Earlier, however, you said you knew of Morgana. Have you heard, perhaps, of King Arthur before today?" Gaius said, bringing the group back to their original topic.

Melinda frowned. "No."

Gaius turned to Merlin. "Then the matter at hand is very grave. At the rate we're going, Arthur will die, perhaps with you, too, Merlin."

Melinda looked down at her hands. "Wait. In the woods, you said the last time you saw me...I was dead. How, exactly, would that be?"

"I…" She wasn't sure how to word this. "Yes, you were dead when I spoke to you last. I was born with...gifts. I have the ability to speak to the dead. It's my job to cross ghosts over to the other side."

Gaius frowned. "I've never heard of anything like that"

"Well, it's nice to first believe in ghosts." She offered up. Merlin scoffed.

"Of course we believe in ghosts. It's the seeing part that's impossible."

Melinda was dumbfounded. Usually, people would tell her that she was insane, and no such thing was possible. Or, they would thank her for confirming what they already believed to be true. Never before had she ever encountered something like this.

Gaius frowned upon Merlin's attitude. "What do they look like?"

"Like you and I. They aren't demons. They were people once, and that's how they look. Although, some decide to look the same way they did when they died. Sometimes that can make them seem less human."

"How did I look?" Merlin asked.

"Almost exactly as you do now" She answered. The two boys shared a look.

"We must act quickly. I feel that history is to be changed soon." Gaius said.


End file.
